Monday, May 07, 2018

Where People Live

It is estimated that 88% of the world's population lives north of the equator. One reason for this fact could be that there is more landmass north of the equator and more water south of the equator. However the north of the planet has roughly 68% of the world's landmass so that obviously doesn't fully explain why nearly 90% of the world's population is squeezed into 68% of the world's landmass.

You can see where the world's population lives on Andre Andersen's World Population Map. This population density map includes two graphs which show the distribution of the world's population both by latitude and longitude. This helps us to see where the highest densities of the world's people actually live.

Using the map you can see a huge percentage of the world's population lives east of Delhi and west of China's east coast. That is between longitude 72 E and longitude 123 E. Bill Rankin's Radical Cartography estimates that half the world's population lives north of 24 N latitude.

The answer to why most of the world lives north of the equator is because that is where India and China are. Why most people live in India and China is of course an entirely different question.